By Brennon Land Not an Immigrant (2020) Stripped Of the land The language The memory of my people. Four hundred years of genocide And still my darkness survives. Though your words roll off my tongue Your clothes don’t fit my form. To you I am a ‘well-spoken. ‘Literate yet uncouth Unforgivably proud Irredeemably Savage. Love Offerings (2020) Late season sweet peas Plump and cold In a wooden bowl Smelling of green And frosty air Regret (2020) Regret is waiting For an opportunity That will never come Regret is a life That was never truly lived For no good reason Regret is the name Never called to your lover To stop…

By Brennon Land (2020) Roots stay shallow In earth poisoned By blood Mingled with the iron And the lead And the hate That put it there Roots stay shallow In earth salted By sweat and tears Savagely distilled From ‘savage’ bodies Stolen and displaced To lands stolen In the name of God The Civilized Whose mercy blesses Pilgrims Evangelists Intrepid Settlers Slaying old gods And their children alike Roots stay shallow In earth glutted On strange fruits Stolen and scorned By the same hands That left bruises Easily hidden Beneath dark skin So that eyes Blind to color See no injury And mouths that feed From broken flesh Teeth freshly…

By Shanice Lawton She dreams of you every night, Your smile still lights up her heart, She still speaks of you as if you will walk into the room, Your nephew is the spitting image of you he even has your humor, The picture that hangs in my office is my favorite one of you, When she smiles I see the tears she holds back, She tries to be strong but I know at night she still cries, Your birthday is in two weeks and every year she goes silent on that day, We tell her how much we love her every chance we get, You were worried she would…

By Raelene Active There was a time where I didn’t think about it I was a young tiny little thing Bright but stubborn to the core I never thought I would make some of the choices I have made No one in their right minds imagines they are going to become… An addict There I said it As if it were to come alive and become a living breathing heart beating thing Oh wait… I did that already I am that living breathing heart beating thing I like to think I am recovering Every second, minute, moment I stay away from it Is a turnaround from where I used to…

by Jamaille Austin I had a self-actualization precognition of prestigious amore in the dawn early morning light As I vehemently recollected egocentric cohesive without meditative intuitive contrite I reminisced introverted theoretical monologue referencing ethical wrongs or upright As I relinquished a ravishing sociological companion daunting temerarious strife I envisaged underneath pseudo arena electricity bulbs our gallant alliance transcending Triumphing above nefarious artesian obstacles blockading the corridors of unorthodox haymaker mending This southpaw fisticuff stance zealot conversed with the governing orchestrator of omnipotent assimilating As unfortuitive tragedies tarnished aspirations of idyll modern day folklore persevering I contemplated a savagery hierarchy tier of eloquent competitive brutality majestically ascending Aligning with mesmerizing nocturnal…

by Zoe May Today I fell a little in love. Today I looked someone in the eyes, we laughed and I felt myself fall in love. I watched someone make a foolish joke and I fell in love. I was having a hard day and someone hugged me tight and I fell in love. Someone waiting outside the door for you to come out, a silly face put on simply to make someone smile, it all made me fall just a little in love. I fall for the sky, I fall for the stars, for a toddler staring in awe at the world around them, I fall for it all.…

by Jamaille Austin Stove Top Marinade Barbeque and Kalbi Dishes Inspire Cerebrospinal Deluge Consciousness Canoes Sutbol Tenebrous Sulpher Ventricles and Molar Avenues

by Caroline Oakley _____ Today, it is as if I’ve entered A new gallery of your life ** Remembering your art Through a new perspective. _____ Listen Softly ** move with ease calls out the breeze ** and please please stop trying to appease _____ Release ** find the Language of your Journey walk with the seasons patiently things will always resolve beyond the limits of time. _____ Connection ** Could it be that we drink of the same water, trees and humans formed of the same hummus? ** Do we then each contain The Tree of Life with our hearts? ** We toil and till through the many layers…

by Gregg Oakley ** Between the soil, tree and wind, I have been given a job to do. No one else seems interested As I walk around in the street, Picking up only what I’ve been given. ** A boisterous wind blew and blew, Just like a young boy shaking the tree Down come the pecans. ** We have been given the earth And the earth provides for us, A perpetual feast.

by Gregg Oakley ** I will be saddened As I grow older, Not because of my age, But because my elders, Will be less of my elders. ** Who will I look to For wisdom and guidance? Who will advise me With words of experience? ** Not knowledge, Not information, But lived wisdom. ** I will be saddened when my elders Become less of My elders.